Branding for B2B: is it profitable?

There is a lot of talk about the importance of a strong brand when selling directly to consumers. Is there really anything different when selling to companies? It is still people who make the decisions. People to interest, convince and build trust in your product or service. What is the difference? 

What is a brand?

Sometimes we, incorrectly, use brand as a designation for the logo. Or the logo and main design. A brand is so much more. It includes everything you do with customers, suppliers, staff and stakeholders. All contacts in the company and with the company affect the image of you. Of your brand. A brand is much more an experience than an appearance.

How do you build your brand?

To build a brand, you need to create a clear, distinct and credible image of what you stand for and what you sell. The image naturally needs to match the market's requirements and expectations. To be credible, it needs to be based on values and characteristics found in the company and the product. Important questions are, for example: Why do we exist? What do we believe in? How do we want to do business? Always remember that a brand is an experience. Not a design, a color or a font. They should “only” enhance the experience.

Storytelling – create credibility in your brand.

Once you've answered the questions, it's time to build a believable story. Or several stories. A 10 second elevator pitch. A longer sales history at sales meetings. A clear history for personnel and recruitment. These stories must of course be similar and based on the same foundation. But there is a slightly different angle to a sales story and a recruitment story. 

In addition to being credible, it is important that the story stands out. Otherwise, no one will remember it. Distinction is the be-all and end-all of branding. If you are not unique, you are one of the crowd. 

It is also important to understand that there is a human being at the company. A person with feelings, opinions, thoughts and ideas. Business to business does not exist. Everything is about business to humans, B2H simply.

Investing in and building a brand increases your profitability.

There are two basic questions that are important in B2B. What makes customers buy from us? And, what are they willing to pay for our services/products? When you rank the associations that answer the first question, Service, Reliability, and Customer focus end up at the top. Not very surprising. Sensible and rational qualities. But when you look at the second question, it becomes more interesting. Then the three most important associations are Uniqueness, Community, and Prestige/status. 

These are qualities that you build with branding and storytelling. In other words: the reason customers want to shop are product-related, rational arguments. With the price determined by social and emotional arguments. This means, roughly simplified, that a strong brand is the prerequisite for a higher price level.

In addition, a new survey shows that the brand name accounts for the majority of traffic on the Internet. Both via paid and organic searches More traffic means more potential business.

So if your business is based on contacts with people at other companies, it's time to think about what you're doing with your brand. If you want to earn more money.

Do you also want to build brand and earn more money?
Get in touch with klas @ kip.se